Gate: Five of Pentacles
I passed through the vision gate and found myself walking through a barren landscape where the ground was composed of red clay. I picked up some of the ruddy dust in my hands and it felt powdery and dry under my fingertips. When I went to drop the clay, some of it remained on my palms so, as I ventured further into the realm, I wiped my hands on my jeans leaving long, reddish streaks behind.
A clamor of metal and screams came from ahead and I followed the noise to a cliff that looked high over a vast plain where two armies clashed. Their swords met with deafening clangs and screams of terror in a never ending war though what the war was over was unclear to my sight.
“This is such a shame,” I said as I finished cleaning my palms and stood with my hands clasped behind my back overlooking the field of battle. “I bet these warriors have families, sweethearts or, at the very least, parents who must wonder when their son or daughter is going to come home again. If my child, even fully grown, was upon this plain, I would want this war to cease immediately. I bet they wish the same, whoever they are.”
Just then, an enormous clay golem with glowing red eyes and large spikes protruding from his elbows burst out of the dust of the plain and stood beside me upon the cliff’s edge.
“Well, it’s nice to have some company in this forsaken place of perpetual struggle,” I said. “What is your name, my friend?”
“Ruthlessness,” the golem rumbled in a bass voice that caused the small rocks of the area to vibrate in his resonance.
“Ruthlessness, is it?” I said. “Thank you for coming to my aid but I require a gentler guide than you at this particular juncture.” The massive earth elemental nodded in acknowledgment of my feelings and sank back into the ground from whence he came.
I stood awhile all alone in the cacophony of the plain then a door opened in the air and a woman, with black, shoulder-length hair and clothed in armor like a mighty warrior, stepped through it.
“People sure know how to make an entrance around here,” I observed. “My name is Heidi, great warrior. What may I call you?”
“Ananda,” she replied shortly, but not unkindly, and walked away. I followed my new, less threatening guide further into the dusty, war-filled world in which I found myself.
Before us, a magnificent city manifested out of the ground. The buildings rippled and changed as Ananda and I watched, appearing one way then folding back into the earth and rising again in a completely different configuration. I marveled at the perfection of the unfolding as well as the speed.
“Welcome to the City of Mars, Heidi,” Ananda said. “You see before you the birthplace of war, conflict, and change through unending struggle.”
“Why does the vista move?” I asked. “And why does the lord of this realm go by Mars and not Ares?”
“The great god of war shapes this world with his thoughts and secret dreams,” my warrior guide replied. “Also, he tells us how to address him so perhaps you can ask him why he prefers one name over another.”
“I will be sure to do so, if I ever have the honor of standing in his presence,” I said.
Ananda laughed at my words though I was unsure what she found so funny as we passed through the rapidly shifting city. After many dead ends and sharp turns, the warrior led me to a hovel built of red mud with a low doorway in its side that I had to bend over to enter without striking my head.
“Be careful at the threshold of the City of Mars,” Ananda advised as I entered the hovel. “I’ve taken an injury there more times than I can count.”
I sighed suddenly with a sadness I did not expect upon my entrance to the god’s home. “War is one of the great evils of the world no matter which side you find yourself on,” I said when I could clear my throat of the tears that threatened to spill from my eyes. “Even practicing for combat causes death. I personally know at least one warrior who never made it to the field of battle, falling beside those he was training with. I hope wherever he is now that John is at peace.”
Ananda turned to me in the semi-darkness of the hovel and I saw the brightness of her eyes beneath her helmet shining at me like two stars. “I promise you, Heidi, your lost warrior friend is at peace,” she said. “You have my word on that and, in this world at least, my word still has great meaning.”
As my guide spoke, the closeness of the hovel started to change and, instead of being in a small clay home, I now found myself in a great hall with a glowing bonfire that lit an empty throne made of carved wood that stood at the far end of the space. Long tables lined both sides of the hall and within the longhouse’s shadowy ceiling intricately carved tree trunks of wood held up a roof of thickly woven straw.
“This looks nothing like the place we entered,” I said, looking about myself in surprise.
“In the City of Mars,” Ananda said. “Change can happen rapidly even when you least expect it to do so. Come now, let us find you a place at the god of war’s table.”
“Every place looks open to me,” I said. “We stand within an empty hall, Ananda.”
The warrior chuckled again. “If only I could see with your eyes, Heidi,” she said. “I will help you find your place because this hall is as full as I’ve ever seen it.”
“Really?” I said and allowed myself to be led to a table on the god’s right hand side. “I see nothing but shadows within this place and light coming from the fire. Perhaps it’s better that way. I will not question what I am allowed to see and what I am not.”
Once I was seated, Ananda gestured to someone I could not perceive and food magically appeared before me. Dinner that night was a hearty stew with chunks of vegetables and beef within as well as a honeyed bread which I dipped into the broth. “You shall feast until the god arrives,” my guide announced and left the hall.
Food and drink kept appearing at my table through no means that I could discern. I ate in silence and shadow until a great boar was brought from the kitchen on a spit, held by unseen hands. At that moment, a being in burnished red and gold armor, and carrying a long spear, strode through the doorway. He sat on the throne that stood at the front of the hall and as the god sat the material of the throne changed from wood to iron. The god drove his spear into the ground next to his seat and removed his helmet as well.
I left the feasting table and timorously approached the god in his place of power. Though I could not see those who were in the hall behind me, I felt their attention on me all the same. “Hail, Great One,” I said when I finally stood before the god. “My name is Heidi and I am honored to stand before you today.”
The god nodded to acknowledge my presence and began consuming the roast boar in enthusiastic bites. “Why are you here, Heidi?” he asked through a mouthful of food. “You are not someone I expected to see in my hall of warriors or ever for that matter.”
“Ananda brought me to your door,” I replied. “Believe me, my presence here surprised me as much as it surprised you. I seek the nature of this place, Great One.”
The warrior god gave a laugh and said, “You beheld the nature of this place the moment you set foot in the door. The two armies showed it to you. What else do you need to know of my eternal struggle with the shadow? We do not shirk from the fight outside of the City of Mars.”
“There must be more to your realm than simple violence,” I said, but the war god ignored me and continued on with his boar. “Also, Great One, what may I call you? Ananda said you go by the appellation of Mars but I wanted to hear the truth from your own lips.”
The god swallowed his mouthful of food. “I have so many names from the dawn of time and all of the civilizations within it to the present moment that I usually allow those who approach me to give me my current designation,” he said. “What name do you find appropriate, my newest and most unexpected warrior?”
“Hmmmm,” I said, pausing for a moment in thought and tapping my chin with my finger. “I’m quite fond of the name, Ares. I don’t know why but for some reason I find that name to be more pleasing to the ear than Mars.”
“Makes no difference to me now,” the god replied. “Soldiers bleed red if Roman or Greek or something else entirely. Ares, in this moment, I shall be. But if you seek me tomorrow, you shall call me, Mars, be it pleasing to your ears or not.”
“This arrangement is acceptable to me, Ares,” I said. “Thank you for indulging my whim. Now that I know what to call you, if you could teach me one additional thing about your nature, what would it be?”
“I would teach you not to fear conflict,” the god said. “Through, what appears to you, to be a painful and pointless process, growth occurs. It is only through conflict that you may move forward from present circumstances. If it was not for me and mine, you and yours would have vanished from the Earth ages ago. Keep that in mind when you impugn my warriors.”
“Because I do hear you and your innermost thoughts, Heidi,” Ares continued. “You never see the hand of the Creator in any conflict be it personal or global. How can you be so blind that, within the seat of my own power, you can’t even see my armies of light? Their great sacrifices keep my civilizations together. I know this is so yet you do not.”
I considered the god’s words for a moment. “There are many ways to live a life, Ares,” I said after a time. “I find it so curious that you can see only one way forward. Maybe at some future time, you will see with my eyes and I will see with yours and together we’ll find a new way to view reality, a middle way.”
The god finished his boar and put his shining helmet back upon his head. “May the future come about as you said, Heidi,” Ares said with a sigh. “I am not a being of many words, so now I shall call my sister so she may speak with you further about my nature.” Ares gave a mighty roar and the dark-haired warrior who had guided me to the god’s throne appeared. This time, she was dressed in shining white Grecian robes and carried an owl on her shoulder.
I assumed from these trappings that the goddess was Athena, the sister of Ares rather than a warrior called Ananda and addressed her as such. “Hail and well met, Athena!” I cried. “Tell me, great warrior goddess, what is the difference between your brother and yourself?”
“The god of war is violence and unpredictable, unplanned conflict. He is war for survival,” she said. “The red of this place symbolizes blood, the color of life, spilled on every battlefield in existence both male and female.” The goddess looked directly into my eyes. “I am planned, strategic conflict for the same purpose, survival.” The warrior shrugged her shoulders so the owl left his seat and flew high into the air. Then, she pulled a great bow from behind her back and, in one smooth movement, shot the beautiful bird from the skies of the hall.
“Why did you do such a thing!” I exclaimed and ran to the fallen bird’s side. The goddess’ arrow jutted from his proud chest and I watched the owl’s eyes close in death.
The goddess turned to leave but before she exited the throne room, she spoke carelessly over her shoulder: “The Romans called me, Diana.” Then, she was gone.
I removed the arrow from the owl’s body and laid my hands on his wound. “Creator of All,” I prayed. “Please spare this poor creature. He should not have died just to teach me a lesson about the ruling powers of this world. Let him resume his eternal existence as a symbol of enduring wisdom and an incomparable guide through the shadows. Hear my plea, Lords of this Realm, and have mercy.” I shut my eyes and when I opened them again the owl was standing upright, completely healed, and examining me with his great golden eyes. “Thank you, Lord. Thank you, God,” I said as Ares turned his attention from his feasting warriors and saw what I had done.
“What an asset you would be upon the battlefields among my warriors, Heidi. With you among them, they would be deathless, fearless and unstoppable, but I know your temperament and that you would never agree to such an arrangement. I see within your spirit that you do not delight in slaughter like my sister. That is a good, if sad reality for me and my armies,” the god said. He stood from his throne and pulled his great spear from the ground. “Because you allowed me to see such a large part of your true nature, I shall return the favor. Let me tell you a great secret, Heidi.” Ares came close, knelt beside me driving his weapon into the earth next to us, and whispered, “Neither do I delight in slaughter. It is the action that I crave, not the death itself. Tell no one in my world the truth for it would affect their view of me and I could not take such a slight to my mighty dignity. To those beneath me, let them believe I care not whether they live or die as long as they carry out my commands without question. To you, I will be someone else entirely and you can be someone else to me, a secret companion for those who value peaceful action, life and love over death, domination and fear.”
I brushed a finger across the downy chest of the resurrected owl. “I will serve as a companion for you, Ares, for your sparing me the trials of your battlefields and serving in the ranks of your armies. Though I pray for healing and peace for all I encounter in the Inner and Outer Worlds, discord and war seem to haunt my footsteps and my heart, if it ever was, is no longer in the eternal wars of heaven and earth,” I said. “We have already agreed, Great One, that you shall be Mars to me henceforth. What name shall I be to you?”
“Your name is Heidi and Heidi shall most likely be how I refer to you in the future,” the god said. “But tonight, for this one moment in time and space, I shall call you Eirēnē and say that once upon a time Peace herself walked into my Hall of War. She resurrected one of my fallen and she gave me a single moment of contentment and hope in my endless years of war and strife against the shadow. Thank you, Eirēnē.”
“If only I truly was a goddess of peace,” I said. “But I can pretend with the best of them. As a voice for Love and Harmony, I say you deserve more than one moment of peace, Great One. May all those who value peace, life and love find their way to your door the second you need a reminder from the one who put the stars in motion that there is an existence outside of eternal conflict and that its dominion is yours as well as the pursuit of it. Call those timely messengers ‘Eirēnē’ in remembrance of this moment and me. Once I leave this hall, I shall be myself, a simple messenger again, but before I do so, let me give one further gift to you from Love.”
I reached out and touched Ares’ ancient weapon which was still standing in the ground next to us. Beneath my fingers, a word appeared in shining letters upon the shaft of the spear. The god read aloud the word, “Serenity”.
“This is the name of your weapon, Ares,” I said. “They are Serenity and when they are in your hand you hold the beginning of all wars but also the ending of them as well. Remember, you fight with and for Serenity with Eirēnē standing invisibly in your shadow for I will never leave you to fight alone. I thank you most humbly for not only the insights into your true nature that you shared with me today but also your sister’s. May you dwell in contentment and joy even in the midst of the direst fight against the shadows throughout the worlds.”
Ares rose from his knees and helped me up from the ground as well. “Come again soon, Eirēnē,” the god said. “You may darken my doorstep anytime and upon any battlefield you choose.” I encouraged the resurrected owl to climb my arm and sit upon my own shoulder as I exited the god’s presence and the still empty, to my eyes, hall.
In the time that I had been within, Ares’ Hall had changed from a one-roomed long building into a great palace with many windows and turrets. I found myself rising into the air outside this castle with the owl flying calmly beside me as if he had never been shot and killed in the first place.
We flew across the landscape together until we came to a river the color of blood, filled with red silt from the land and moving sluggishly. Endless fields sown with grain appeared on either side, growing and thriving beneath the reddish sun of the world of war and beside the river of blood. The owl and I continued along the river’s winding banks until the landscape became less settled and more wild. In the place of tended fields, we discovered hills and meadows of sprouting wildflowers of various colors within its reddish soil.
We were deep in the wilderness when I heard the sound of a hammer striking an anvil and I landed in front of an open-walled pavilion. My new owl friend landed upon my shoulder once again as my feet hit the ground. Within the building, I beheld a spirit in the shape of a giant of a man with long black hair and muscles built from toil and hard work who was forging and shaping a sword. I thought this was most likely Hephaestus, the renowned inventor and creator of many of the tools and weapons of the gods, but not wanting to make another mistaken identification as I had with Diana I said, “Hail, Spirit of Iron and talented smith. My name is Heidi and I come from another world. What may I call you?”
The artisan of metal paused in his labor and gave me one long look up and down. “Hafiz, Heidi,” he said. “You may call me that. One has to travel far indeed to find me on the edges of civilization, deep within the world of the gods of war. You are welcome here for the moment but know the vanguards of the armies of light and shadow are not far. They approach even now and thus I am ever pressed for time to speak my mind between my creations.” Wiping the sweat from his brow, the smith returned to his hot and grueling work beneath the awnings of his grand pavilion.
I moved to Hafiz’s side to better view his work, taking care to avoid the burning sparks that flew from his swinging hammer. “What are you doing?” I asked as my owl hooted softly. “Forgive my curiosity but I have no background in the working of iron or manipulation of other metals.”
“I make these to feed the hounds of war,” he said. “They are ever so hungry, Heidi. The shadow makes certain this is so.”
Beneath the hammer’s strokes upon the metal, a delicate scrollwork pattern magically appeared upon the blade. “There are hounds of war on both sides of the battlefield, light and shadow included. Doesn’t it bother you that your beautiful creations are used for mutual destruction?” I said, admiring the weapon. “I think it would bother me a great deal to know a truth like that.”
“I do not control what is done with my work,” Hafiz said with resignation in his tone. “I can only make my swords and other weapons of war as beautiful and deadly as I am able and, to my sorrow, I am very, very able in this regard.”
“Could you make something for me, Great One?” I said. “I will not use it for war, I promise.”
The smith laughed. “You say that now, Heidi,” he said. “I wonder if you will say the same thing in the future. But, I believe you in the here and now and that’s enough for an ancient creator and artist like me. Let’s see if we can find a suitable weapon of war for you.” Hafiz put his work in progress upon the ground and moved to a crate full of raw materials that sat a little way away.
Utilizing the materials in the crate, Hafiz crafted, so quickly it was miraculous to my mind, a pair of gigantic golden wings which he then affixed to my back through some magic and secret skill of his own. “Beware that you do not fly too high or too fast with my gift, little warrior,” he said. “Once you are used to these and their function, they will disappear within your spirit but you will still be able to fly. Safe travels to you, wherever you choose to roam. May it be far from these battlefields into the paradise we all dream of, those spirits who dwell here in the trenches of war.”
“Thank you and the same to you! I love them!” I cried in delight as I took off into the air on the golden wings of Hafiz. The owl joined me in the skies above the world of war and we began our exploration of the realm anew. I had far more control in my flight now, becoming someone who could move through the air with the speed and surety of a modern missile rather than a simple bird of the sky. I marveled at the unimaginable advancement in my skill and strength.
“Hafiz is a genius. That being said, I wonder who was moving me through the air before I received my wings?” I mused to the owl. He hooted once in response. “It wasn’t you, was it?” I asked. This time I received no response at all.
There my vision ended.
The Light Congress 